Sony VR Studio Head Dave Ranyard Steps Down

After working at Sony's London Studio for 17 years, Dave Ranyard has announced he's parting ways with the developer.

The studio head oversaw several PlayStation VR demos, including The London Heist and Streetluge. In addition to Sony's virtual reality efforts, Ranyard worked on The Getaway, as well as several titles for Wonderbook, Eyetoy and Singstar.

Ranyard is leaving the company to pursue new virtual reality projects in an independent capacity. "2016 is going to be the year of VR so it's the perfect time for me to take this step into independent development," Ranyard said in a statement (via GameInformer). "The emergence of a new medium like VR doesn't come along very often and I really want to be a part of this new world."

Sony has yet to announce a price or release date for PlayStation VR, but we do know the device is set to launch sometime later this year and will be priced as "new gaming platform."

Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to him on YouTube.